Jack Townsend offers this blog on Federal Tax Crimes principally for tax professionals and tax students. It is not directed to lay readers -- such as persons who are potentially subject to civil and criminal tax or related consequences. LAY READERS SHOULD READ THE PAGE IN THE RIGHT HAND COLUMN TITLED LAY READER LIMITATIONS. Thank you.

Well, I thought, perhaps TIGTA is just not as smart or savvy as DOJ Tax and was just talking off the reservation (as was, presumably Judge Webster in the Webster report). So, I just did the trusty Google search and I find that the following sources, among many others, also repeat this notion, perhaps rotely (maybe cloning it from Judge Webster or whoever he cloned it from).

4 comments:

If DOJ has no authority to conduct tax investigation, does it mean that HSBC (or other's) client who received a letter from DOJ can simply disregard it? Or return it back mentioning that DOJ has no authority to ask those questions? What would DOJ do in such a hypothetical case?

I don't think that the target of a DOJ Tax criminal tax investigation can ignore the investigation or any indictment that may come from it. I think the test of the propriety of the investigation would come after the indictment.

I can't speak for what DOJ Tax would do in a case where the taxpayer sent back the letter stamped unacceptable or some such. I suspect that DOJ Tax would not affected one way or the other.

I may be a little late to this discussion, but, in response to Anonymous' question, I would hire the author of this blog, Jack Townsend, if I got such a letter. His commentary is knowledgable, thoughtful, and not a bombastic account of how great he is, unlike most of his lawyer brethren. For the record, I have no connection to Jack other than as a reader and sometimes commentator on this blog!

Please make sure that your comment is relevant to the blog entry. For those regular commenters on the blog who otherwise do not want to identify by name, readers would find it helpful if you would choose a unique anonymous indentifier other than just Anonymous. This will help readers identify other comments from a trusted source, so to speak.